Wednesday, August 27, 2014

When we started our reno and the builders were taking the old plaster board off the walls I was hoping we'd find an old newspaper inside one of the walls- I remember as a child the thrill of finding some faded old newspaper hidden away for a different generation to find. We didn't find any but as our builders have nearly finished the gibbing of our new walls I thought it would be fun to make a little time capsule to put inside the last wall to get gibbed which will hopefully be today! I'm going to use a snap lock bag and we'll just staple gun it or tack it to a piece of the framing. Inside we've put…

* Family photo

*Local newspaper

*Recent magazine

*Stella did drawings of our family and Amelie made up a little collage about us and doing the reno

*A questionnaire- I quickly typed these questions up yesterday and Amelie filled it out last night….

*some stamps and coins

Update- Penny from Little Houswife had some cool suggestion on my Facebook page- she suggested a supermarket receipt, petrol receipt, a CD with current popular music and a TV Guide magazine :)

Family Time Capsule

Date.........................................

Address ..........................................

How old is this house?

When did we buy this house?

How long have we lived here?

Who did we buy this house from?

Why did we buy this house?

What have we done to the house since buying it?

About our family

Who is in our family and how old are we?

What school/daycare do we go to, who is our Principal and who are our teachers?

What do we like doing as a family?

What are some of the fun things we have done in this house so far?

Who are some of our friends in the neighbourhood?

What are some of our favourite movies and TV shows?

Life in the Year ................

Who is the NZ Prime Minister?

How much is a loaf of bread and a litre of milk?

What are some things that have happened this year worldwide?

When I was teaching I used to do a time capsule in the first week of school with my class- we would get a large plastic bottle, put in a class photo, a newspaper and each child would write a little note about themselves, what they like doing and what their favourite things are. They were always so excited at the end of the year to open up the time capsule. Although one year we buried it in a garden at school and couldn't find it at the end of the year!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Hi everyone, here is a quick blog post showing how to make one of these cool skateboard swings- great for older kids and a really quick and easy backyard project!

You will need

* a skateboard deck

*2 pieces of dowel approx 20cm long each for the 'handles'

*a rope - ours was approx 10 metres long- cut this in half for each side of the swing

(it all depends on the height of your branch so you may need less or more rope than ours)

Pic one

1. Drill a hole at each end of the pieces of dowel the same width if not a bit bigger than your piece of rope

2. Drill 2 holes at one end of the skateboard deck- you can see in the photo above where the holes are (where the rope has been threaded through and knotted.) Do the same at the other end of the deck. (The other holes on the deck are from the wheels)

Pic two

Pic three

3. Use a lighter to burn the ends of each piece of rope to stop the rope fraying and for threading through the holes. Thread one of your 5 metres approx pieces of rope through the holes underneath the deck so it looks like the pic above with equal length of rope coming out of each hole. Tie a knot as in Pic one to keep the deck stable.

4. Do the same on the other end of your deck

Pic four

5. Thread each end of your pieces of rope through the holes you drilled into your dowel. We put our dowel about a metre up from the deck. You could make it lower or higher depending on the height of your children. (Ours are 3, 5 and 7- the handles are probably a little too high for our 3 year old).

Tie a knot above and below each piece of dowel where you have threaded your rope through to keep the handles stable.

6. Loop each piece of rope over a branch and tie securely. Our deck is about 30 cm approx above the ground.

7. Done- swing time!

Thanks for reading, feels good to be getting back into some blogging again :)

welcome

Hello and welcome to 'mousehouse'-a place I share crafty projects, home design and organising ideas, fun things for kids to make and do, classroom and teaching ideas and lots more...

Megan

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"To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring- these are some of the rewards of the simple life"